The months of patience and perseverance has finally paid off.
27 Desember 2016 21:14
Brilio.net/en - So much chaos is happening around the globe along 2016, not exceptionally for the Native Americans. Since spring this year, the Standing Rock Reservation has started a movement to decline the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) project.
The protest is known by hashtag #NoDAPL, as a reaction to the construction of Energy Transfer Partners Dakota Access Pipeline that would run from the Bakken oil fields from North Dakota to southern Illinois to carry out crude oil throughout the four states. The pipeline is designed to cross beneath the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and part of Lake Oahe, which are the source for the Sioux tribes drinking water.
The protest started with the Standing Rock Sioux elder LaDonna Brave Bull Allard establishing a camp as a center for cultural preservation and spiritual resistance to the pipeline. Within six months the camp had grown into thousands of people who call themselves the water protector.
For months they had to strive through the heavy weather and face violence with tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, dog attacks, and mass arrests, only to protect the land that is actually theirs by trying to stop the heavy machines to go on with their construction project.
But the fight was not only environmental. It is also a fight for the indigenous rights. The areas in which the DAPL runs through belong to the Native Americans, consisting the sacred burial sites of Sioux tribe, Black Hill. The lands of Great Sioux Nation used to be bigger but the Fort Laramie Treaty in 1868 had reduced it to the east side of the Missouri River and the state line of South Dakota in the west. Now, with the DAPL project, it seems like they are taking more from the tribe with force.
On Tuesday, December 5, the military veterans Wesley Clark Jr. and Michael Wood Jr. brought with them 4,000 fellow army veterans2.5 times more people of the expected amountto Standing Rock. On the great meeting Clark Jr. talked to Leonard Crow Dog, the Lakota medicine man and spiritual leader.
The young military activist confessed the crime of the government against the Native Americans by taking over their lands, people, and language by force and asked for forgiveness by kneeling before the elderly. He was eventually given the blessing, and some women from the army were crying.
The tense in the air was followed with the tribe singing of what sounds like a sacred songs. Leonard Crow Dog then replied to the army by saying that the day marked the recovery for the tribes pain and addressing for the world peace. Watch the full event on the video below.
According to indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com, the protest had caused Energy Transfer Partners, the builder of $ 3.8 billion DAPL project to losing close to $ 20 million per week. President Trump himself, according to AJPlus.net, is known to have invested about $ 500,000 to $ 1 million on the project.
This kind of prolonged protest is also happening almost everywhere around the world, including in Indonesia. The cases are especially done for the sake of Mother Earth's preservation against the industrial development: the reclamation at Jakarta bay and Benoa bay; deforestation in Kalimantan and Sumatra; the water quality and supply problems in the remote areas; and many others. If there is anything we can learn from the Great Sioux tribe, perhaps the persistence in fighting for their rights can be a good example to be implemented on our campaigns against the government that could actually bring us a solution and result.
